Gardaí warn 522 people they are in danger from Dublin gangs

‘There are three feuds. You can’t take your eye off them,’ says high-ranking Garda officer

Assistant Commissioner Pat Leahy: “We have almost a fleet of patrol cars now deployed just to send the message that ‘the guards are around’.” File photograph: Cyril Byrne/The Irish Times.

More than 500 people in Dublin have been issued with active warnings by the Garda that their lives are in danger from criminals, a senior officer has said.

Assistant Commissioner Pat Leahy, who is in charge of policing in the Dublin region, said the threats to the lives of the 522 people were ranked by order of significance.

He said 11 threats were at the top of the scale and ranked as “critical” with 10 of these in Dublin north central, where much of the Kinahan-Hutch feud has unfolded. Some 171 others were living with a “substantial” threat to their lives.

The remainder had a threat against their lives that while active was ranked as moderate or low.

“Of those 522 threats to life; a lot of the next set of murders are contained in that cohort,” he said. “We have almost a fleet of patrol cars now deployed just to send the message that ‘the guards are around’.”

Significant feuds

The threats often relate to organised crime gang members planning to shoot their rivals, plans gardaí hear about, he said.

Mr Leahy added while the Kinahan-Hutch feud had absorbed a lot of Garda resources, it was only one of the feuds gardaí in the city were dealing with.

“There are three significant feuds. You can’t take your eye off them,” he said, a reference to gangland feuds in Ballymun and Finglas.

Ms Corbally’s brother Derek Devoy (38), a Kinahan associate, was the intended target. When Jason Molyneux (27) was gunned down in the north inner city in January, that was also linked to the Ballymun feud.

The third feud, in Finglas, is between rival factions there. On Sunday Dubliner Shane Fowler (35) was killed when his motorbike crashed in Finglas. He was carrying a gun at the time. Gardaí believe it was about to be used in an attack linked to that feud.